It’s every player’s dream. They may see their favorite YouTuber do it or see a tweet with an image of the feat. As someone who’s pulled Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout in MLB The Show 24, however, let me tell you – it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
Let’s get this out of the way: I rarely spend money on The Show. Each year, I’ll buy Stubs right when I get the game, so I have a halfway-decent team when I start playing Ranked Diamond Dynasty. After that, though, I dive into the grind and work to earn cards that I like or think will help my team. It’s a great change of pace, especially because I got way too into Madden Ultimate Team back in the day and made some poor financial decisions.
But the grind in MLB The Show 24 has been a bit different than in past years. Good cards are being taken out of programs and stuck in packs, leaving the fanbase upset that the game is going the way of other sports titles, where money is becoming the deciding factor in how good a team is. That’s why it’s unbelievable that, in a year where money is the major topic of conversation, I pulled arguably the two most important cards in the game without spending much at all.
However, the purpose of this piece isn’t too gloat. Sure, I’m excited to talk to my friends about how good my lineup looks, but in reality, I’m the last person who should’ve pulled these cards. Pulling Mike Trout can net a player over 150,000 Stubs, which is enough to fund a team for the game’s entire life cycle, and Ohtani goes for nearly as much. But the fun in pulling something is using it, and unfortunately for me, Trout and Ohtani probably won’t find much success if they stay on my team in MLB The Show 24.
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Like so many others, I’ve been plagued by the pitching issue in this year’s game. I struggle to find the strike zone, and I’m not even using pinpoint pitching. Then there are the issues with hitting. I’ve always performed better with left-handed batters and have yet to truly figure out why. But this leads me to fill my lineup with lefties, so if I run into a formidable left-handed pitcher online, it’s a loss more times than not. That’s not to say I’m awful at the game; I have a winning record online, and my stats are respectable. However, I rarely get my rating above 700 and never find success at Hall of Fame difficulty.
I guess that makes me the Los Angeles Angels of MLB The Show 24. Yeah, I have Trout and Ohtani in my lineup, but the one pulling the strings (or, in this case, the controller) isn’t up to snuff. That leaves me between a rock and a hard place; do I keep Ohtani and Trout and try my best to improve at the game, or do I sell them and keep the Stubs until 99-overall cards show up in the marketplace that will do the work for me?
The latter scenario sounds a lot more practical, but there’s little fun in giving up. So, if you come across a player with Trout and Ohtani online who seems like they have no business having the cards, don’t feel bad for them. You can strike them out knowing that they’re willing to fail time and time again for the love of the game.
MLB The Show 24 is available on Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch.